Originally Posted by
nonpareil
Greece is a shambles .It was in effect a military dictatorship til near when it joined the EEC. It is a basket case economy and it has an elite that pays little tax and a large black economy . Instead of claiming tax from the above it seems to expect other parts of Europe to keep funding it. It is probably time it left the Euro particularly if the leaders keep walking the tightrope they're on.As for Irish standing up to Germans, the Germans propped up the Irish for the benefit of the Euro thus keeping the leprechauns from going through worse things. If we had departed the Euro a few years ago, we would have had our new currency plummet in value leading to serious inflation, increased cost of living, more hardship for ordinary people and increased cost of servicing our massive debt and probably shut out of global borrowing.
The crash of 2008 had global origins but a large component of it here in Ireland was home grown. Irish people , Irish developers and institutions were like pigs at the trough and with easy credit borrowed to the hilt , spent the money often paying 10 times over the odds and real value of property and ruined their own banking system.
The innumerate and semi literate clowns in the banking, government, civil service and property classes of 10 years ago ran this country into the ground.
The Germans helped clean up the mess.Irish governments standing up to Germans...don't make me laugh..beggars can't be choosers..The place at the time was flirting with financial collapse and economic collapse with a large part of it homegrown by Irish people.And any English reading this don't bother waving St . George. .you are not in the Euro.
Having an Irish currency is no panacea for anything.I have to remind myself that some here were school children even during the crisis of 2008/09.Their chances of remembering how great it was in the 1980s with our own currency , or problems with the "Punt' s" fluctuating value due to currency speculators in 1992..are zero.